Ex IGs Should Not Be Appointed To Head PSC- Obasanjo

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo on Thursday in Abuja criticized the appointment of former Inspectors-General of Police as chairmen of the Police Service Commission (PSC).

President Muhammadu Buhari appointed former Inspector-General of Police, Mr Musiliu Smith as chairman of the PSC in 2018. He resigned in 2022 and retired Justice Clara Ogunbiyi took over as acting chairman

Obasanjo expressed his disapproval when he spoke at the public presentation of a book: “Policing the Nigeria Police’’ authored by Chief Simon Okeke, a former chairman of the PSC.

He said: “when you make a retired police officer the head of the Police Service Commission, it is like asking a thief to catch a thief.’’

He said civilians should be appointed as chairmen and retired police officers appointed as members of the PSC to ensure effective and efficient service delivery.

The former president noted that the author believed that Nigeria, a federation, should not have unitary police establishment as people had argued that state police would be abused by governors.

“I won’t say yes or no, but can they not be abused by the Federal Government?

“For a federation, it is contrary to the ideal of the country because the unitary policing system is not close enough to the community where the police are supposed to be.

“The author argued whether the name should truly be the Nigeria Police Force or a Police Service. I believe the police should be a Police Service not a Police Force,” Obasanjo said.

He said the author brought up strong arguments in support of state police as well as training and retraining of police officers, which he agreed with.

Obasanjo noted also that the author argued strongly against authorised and unauthorised deployment of police personnel to private guard duties leading to having many police officers in the security service of few individuals.